I have a strange thing for logo contests. I don’t know if it’s the idea of dozens of people working on something for you, hoping to win the business, or if it’s the chance to see so many creative people at work, or that it is just just an amazing application for the web.
The process is that you post a specification and how much you’re setting for the prize. Then people submit their designs, you give feedback, and they will generally refine the designs. It’s a great process to go through, especially if you don’t know exactly what you want.
We mostly use 99designs for our contests.
We just finished up a logo contest to rebrand our company, MechMedia, Inc. We’ve been in business for several years, I figured it was about time to get that up to snuff. Next up, the website which is not only horrific, it’s way out of date.
You can see most of the 200+ entries (!) on 99 Designs. The contest ran for a week and ended early this week. It was a really difficult decision.
Here’s the winning design. We still haven’t settled on colors. What’s your favorite?
For all it’s goodness, there’s also a strange subculture at work in these contests. Among the designers, there are friendships, competition, fighting, snipes, and outright accusations. After the winner was chosen, there were some sour grapes comments as well. Fortunately, not much of it seems to be directed at the contest holder. Hand that feeds, I guess.
Anyway, if you need a logo designed, for just a few hundred bucks you can have many designers cranking out dozens of designs.
Can’t beat it.
